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Help:Da Vinci wiki projects
Most of the content in the Da Vinci wiki is organized into projects that the members are working on. Each project consists of a group of interconnected pages that share the same category. Each of the projects also have it's own main page. The project's main page and the project-specific category should bare the project's name. Projects are further categorized according to the the type of the project as explained below. Project types The Da Vinci wiki projects can be divided into three types: * Personal endeavor - This type of content refers to content that is mostly based on the thoughts of a single person who is the originator and owner of the project. Pages with this kind of content will be probably edited mostly by their originator, while others may help with spell and style proofing, etc. * Group project - A group project is managed by a defined group of people. Similar to personal endeavors, most contributions will probably come form this group. The group can have a group page in the wiki, describing the group and listing it's members and it's projects. * Community effort - Projects of this kind are open for all. Project custodians Regardless of the project type, each project must have at least one custodian, and not more than three custodians. Custodians must be registered users, who may be contacted personally (for example via their personal talk page), in regards to all kind of project issues. Another important thing to bare in mind is, that projects may start as personal endeavors and then evolve into group projects or community efforts, while in some cases the originator of the project may even step out of it. This is more reason why the identity of the real custodian or custodians of the project should be kept up to date. Working on your projects The truth has to be said, that the working mode that the Da Vinci wiki is meant to foster, is very different than that of corporate-world projects. You will probably not find yourself investing highly focused effort here, with deadlines, measurable milestones and a constant pressure to satisfy investors and share holders. Instead, a typical Da Vinci wiki project is something you will work on using fragments of time, not only because this is not your day job but also because of the way the innovative mind works. This is more art then science... and probably much more fun. It is the power of the wiki's edit-and-save concept that still make it possible to achieve something in this manner - and also the understanding that what is important is to do something with your ideas, rather than just leaving them locked in your mind. So how to begin, in few simple steps * Start right now - Create the first page of your project right now! Just create a page named after your project. You can use the project template to help others know where you project fits into the wiki's landscape and how they can help you along. Deciding about the text of the first page is a great opportunity to organize the main idea of the project in your mind and see where it goes from there. Just drop some links into the text to help you and others see where it goes (well, go on! do that now, and then return here). * Decide what do you want to share - Only after you made the first step, decide to what extent you want to share the project details. Remember, you don't have to share everything! A Da Vinci wiki project is a good place to refer possible investors and endorsers to. Also, you automatically gain intellectual ownership for everything you published. In any case, your decision will probably be much based on what type of project you're up to. For example: **If this is some open source software project that you are actually working on, you will probably want to share the main concept and some algorithms, to try and capture the interest of others who may join you on the actual development. **If the idea you are working on is more to the conceptual side, you may give some practical examples of possible implementations to help clarifying what you mean. :The main point here is that you will have to share more details than you would do in a corporate-world project at such an early phase (that is when it is all still just a visionary idea), but you have to be bold and do that. This is what the whole idea of the Da Vinci wiki is about - that exposing and sharing your visionary ideas to the right extent is essential for enabling them to become real. * Follow up on similar projects - You have already started and already have some general idea of what you want to do in mind. Now is the time to become a part of the Da Vinci wiki community. Follow up, maybe even participate, in some projects which are similar in nature to yours. Get the notion of how things are written. Get some tips from other members. See where your decisions stand, relative to those of others. * Keep writing your project - Think-edit-save, think-edit-save... that it is how it will go for a while. Regardless of weather a single person or a group of people work on the project, thoughts will come, fragments of time will be used, and the edits of the pages will reflect that. What will come out of this? well, something will!. Maybe not exactly what you expected, maybe sometimes you will discover that your ideas get a life and a direction of their own, but surely you know that they will never disappoint you. The worse thing that might happen is that you will get stuck. When that happens, don't force it. Visionary ideas are illusive creatures that come and go as they wish. Remember that what you already done is all saved here, waiting for a time when you can come back to it. Spin-offs While you are working on your projects, you will come up with some ideas that may be useful out side your project. This kind of spin-off ideas may be of several kinds: